Tag: sin

Clarifying your identity

Many young people these days are confused about their identity. Some believe that by stating their chosen preferred identity, the problem is resolved – at last they know who they are. This is not the best way to go about this deeply personal and potentially complex issue.
The fact of deciding to follow Jesus brings the question of identity into a whole new perspective. The only one who ultimately knows us totally and can define who we are is our Maker and Saviour. By creation he has made us in his image, either male or female; but due to the entry of sin into human existence, an essential element of our identity is that we are fallen: “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1.8).

So there is something glorious in our human constitution – “in the likeness of God!” Yet there is something humbling too: we are sinners in need of redemption. As I shall explain further on, once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are redeemed: your status is radically altered. You have a new identity as “a sinner saved by grace”. But much more is involved in your new identity.

Your becoming a child of God is an important element in your new identity as a Christian believer. As a result you have become a brother or a sister of all the others who by trusting Jesus have become children of the same heavenly Father as you. You are a member of God’s family, which is also called the church. (The church, in its biblical meaning, is the company of born-again believers in Jesus). So as you meet up to worship with others who know the same saviour as you do, you find the family atmosphere of brothers and sisters in Christ.

A surprising word used in the New Testament to describe the believers is “saints”. This is not to be confused with the Middle Ages’ idea of super-good Christians with halos round their heads. Rather, when the apostles wrote their letters to quite ordinary believers, they greeted them as saints. It was a perfectly normal way of speaking about the believers in the local churches: Paul writes his letter to “the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1.1; see also 2 Corinthians 1.1, 1 Corinthians 1.1.) In Romans 1.7 they are “called [to be] saints”, that is, committed to a life of goodness, truthfulness, and obedience to God. Saintliness is in fact living a good down-to-earth Christian life, doing what Jesus wants his followers to do; and we receive help from the Holy Spirit to live as saints in the modern world.

So we are brothers and sisters, saints, beloved children of God, forgiven sinners, members of the family of God… the list goes on. All this because we have become believers: believers in Jesus who gave his life that we might be saved; and believers in God our Father who has “adopted” us (that concept is in the Bible too) as his dear children. This new identity that you received upon believing in Jesus, in many ways boosts your self-image; but it should do so in a way that keeps you humble, for all these blessings were granted out of God’s loving heart by grace. It was he who he drew you to himself. We do not deserve such kindness from Him, but he acts towards us not according to what we deserve, but out of his grace, which means his undeserved favour. 

Clive Every-Clayton

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Are you a child of God?

Some people like to think that everyone is a child of God, but John 1.12, as we saw last time, makes clear that believers become children of God by receiving Christ by faith as Lord and Saviour. This assumes they were not children of God before. 

Writing to believers therefore, the apostle John says: “Now we are the sons [and daughters] of God” (1 John 3.1-2). Christian conversion changes our standing before God; henceforth we are his children and he is our Father. A new relationship is established which will not be annulled. And a radical change has come over us. 

Formerly we were among the “sons of disobedience… by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2.2-3). But now, you “are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3.26). The apostle calls believers, “the sons of light” and exhorts us to “walk as children of light – in all that is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5.8-9). In the context (which is worth checking out – verses 3 to 11) this means giving up all sin and impurity, and walking in the light, in holiness and truth. So being a child of God has moral implications: we are to resemble our heavenly Father in his goodness, purity, and holiness – bearing the family likeness.

But we also have entered a new relationship with God, as a child beloved of its father. Either you had a good father, in which case you have a good idea of how God is now your Father; if you had a not so good father – even an absentee father – you may learn from God’s self-revelation in the Bible what it means for you to have God as your good Father now. First, it means he loves you unconditionally. You may mess up at times, drift away, grow cold spiritually; God remains constant in his love for you. His love means he always wants the very best for you. You can trust him absolutely; he is incapable of ill will towards his children. 

And you can talk to him at all times. It’s good to set time aside to pray to him, share with him your situation, your worries, projects and desires, seeking his guidance and help. He is always there to listen with attention, eager to lead you in the right way. So as you read his Word, look out for those passages which tell you how best to live and to please him.

Whatever you may have to face, you can count on his presence to support you. Though at times he may lovingly reproach you for your waywardness and failures, the Bible is categorical: “God is for us” (Romans 8.31). He is never far away. He has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, so we may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13.5-6).

Your heavenly Father is your supreme ally in living a good life in a difficult world. You can talk to him about anything and everything. He talks to you as you read the Bible, speaking words of truth, guidance, and encouragement that you need to hear.

He also gives good gifts to his children, so feel free to ask him for what you need in order to live a life that pleases him. You nourish this relationship by time consciously spent in communion with him. He will help you in various ways as he watches over you every moment to do you good.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Being “born again”?

“Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven”, is Jesus’ categorical teaching. He insisted, “You must be born again” (John 3.3, 7). God operates this new spiritual birth, granting new life to people who turn in faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the indispensable doorway into the kingdom of God; and it happened to you if you believed.

Another verse in John’s Gospel (1.12-13) makes this clear: “To all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born … of God”. To be born of God (not by human descent) makes you a child of God.

How is a person born again, born of God? What does this verse say? By “receiving the Lord Jesus and believing in his name”. Have you trusted in Jesus for your salvation? By that faith you were born again.

The apostle Peter picks up this idea in his first letter as he writes to encourage believers: “Blessed be God! … According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again” (1 Peter 1.3). He encourages his readers further on in verse 23: “you have been born again… through the living and abiding word of God”. This verse fleshes out the image of being spiritually like a new-born baby, born however not by a human process, but “born of the Spirit” (John 3.8) through the “seed” of the word of God.

The concept of being “born again” means that as the Gospel is received by faith, so the Holy Spirit of God communicates new life to the believer.

When this happens to you, what are the consequences? There are at least two: a new life has begun for you; you have become a child of God.

Let’s consider the first of these. When a baby is born he or she receives physical, human life. When you as a believer are born again, you receive life of a different kind: it is spiritual life, called “eternal life” and also “abundant life” (John 10.10). It adds an extra dimension to the life that you lived up till now. As physical life starts out very small, so new life in Christ has humble beginnings. Some babies are born screaming, while others are calm. Even so, some new believers are so overwhelmed by their experience of God’s saving power that they are instantly transformed by God’s saving love. Others, also born again by faith in Christ, experience God’s presence more quietly, almost imperceptibly.

But as the new-born baby slowly grows, so the new-born-again believer is called upon to grow. Peter continues this theme: “Like new-born infants, [you should] long for the pure spiritual milk [the milk of God’s word], that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2.2). We will look again at the whole aspect of spiritual growth, but here, the key element that Peter underlines is God’s Word, the Bible. It was the seed of God’s Gospel that fell into the prepared ground of your heart and began to bring forth fruit in a new life; that life is nourished by reading, studying, and meditating on further truths revealed in God’s Word.

So the Holy Spirit communicates a fresh upsurge of holy life in newly born-again Christians, promoting spiritual growth as they read the Bible and apply it in their particular circumstances. 

The Christian life is not therefore just acquiring new religious practices: it is the uprising of new life that needs to be nourished and encouraged.

Clive Every-Clayton

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What is repentance?

In upcoming posts I shall show how God responds to the believer – all the blessings he showered upon you when you believed; but before that, there’s one more aspect to what’s involved in opening your heart to Christ in faith: you also make a decision to repent. This decision may or may not have been accentuated in your thinking, but it is part of the Christian commitment of faith and conversion as announced by the first apostles: “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3.19).

Coming to Christ involves and leads to a profound change of life. We come to him for forgiveness because we are sinners. We will consider later what that forgiveness is, as it is important to understand it. But it is obviously illogical to expect to receive forgiveness of our sins while we continue to sin as much as we want! We must play fair! “Sin no more” was Jesus’ way of putting it (John 5.14, 8.11). 

So as believers ask Christ to save and forgive them, they also commit to repenting, which means turning away from sin, to follow Jesus and obey his teaching.

It is good, wise, and proper that you should tell the Lord in prayer that this is indeed your decision; you will need (and obtain) his help to overcome the pull of sin that we all feel.

Repentance is involved therefore in your decision to follow Jesus. It means taking a stand against all evil in your life. It may well take time for you to understand that you are habitually falling into sins of thought and desire, but the amazing and wonderful thing about receiving Christ in your heart is that his Spirit begins to pin-point those areas, habits, sinful reactions, and deeds that you are used to doing without your conscience complaining. But the new presence of Jesus within you alerts you when you do things that displease him. This means that new converts, to their surprise find all of a sudden that they are not as good as they thought they were. This can be disconcerting, but don’t worry – it’s quite normal. It is how God begins (and will continue) to clean up your life.

So initial repentance at conversion must be followed by regular self-checking and confessing to God and repenting before him of any sin you may become conscious of having committed. The more conscientious and honest you are in your heart before God, the better your life as a Christian will proceed. I can scarcely emphasise that enough!

You don’t have to confess all the sins of your past life, because conversion wipes them all away: they are “blotted out” (Acts 3.19). But it is helpful to realise that you are called now to a new life.

“Sin no more” is, of course, an absolute high standard, and no Christian reaches it perfectly in this life. The important thing is that our heart’s commitment is henceforth not to sin, but rather to live a life that Jesus would approve of. And that’s a whole life-long programme!

We do, however, benefit from God’s gracious help. He gives us the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ by faith. Jesus comes to indwell us by his Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the third member of the divine Trinity, is the Spirit of Christ and it is thanks to his ministry in us that we are changed to become more like Jesus.

So, welcome to your new life, learning to follow Jesus and “walking according to the Spirit” (Galatians 5.16).

Clive Every-Clayton

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How to believe in Christ?

Whatever may have been your previous acquaintanceship with the person of Jesus, you have come, as it were, to hear his call, “Come, follow me”. Like those in the Gospels, you arose and followed him. It was a personal decision; you may not have understood too much about what it all involved, but you decided to open your heart and you asked Jesus to be your Saviour.

When out for climbing in some great mountains, it is indispensable to procure the services of a guide: the situation may prove perilous ahead. As you journey through life you may now have the services of Jesus, the only reliable Guide to human living at its best. You may trust him to lead you in the right path. There is no better Spiritual Master.

Jesus made numerous promises to those who would believe in him. That’s not simply to believe he existed, nor even to believe he was the Son of God, though these facts about him are foundational. Rather he was referring to a personal commitment between the believer and himself.

When I came to believe in Christ, the evangelist compared what I was about to do to the way a young couple get together. He said that the guy likes the girl and wants to get to know her over time, learning to love her, and desiring to enter a long-lasting relationship. “But,” he said to me, “the two are not married until they stand before the minister who asks them “Do you want to have this woman (or man) to be your lawfully wedded spouse?” In the same way, he said, Jesus says to you, “Do you want me to be your personal Lord and Saviour?” Then he asked me, “What do you want to say to him?” I acquiesced: I wanted to believe. Then he added, “Whenever anyone asks Jesus, ‘Do you want to accept this sinner as your disciple?’ He never says no!”

Maybe like me, you prayed that the Lord would “come into your heart” and save you. After I left the evangelist, I went for a walk, thinking that I had made an important decision that day. It was Easter Sunday afternoon, and I felt that as one “dead in trespasses and sins” I had now become alive in and with the risen Christ (Ephesians 2.5). 

So to “believe” in Jesus has that kind of meaning. He promised “eternal life” to those who believe in him (see John 3.16, 5.24, 6.47, 11.26). Eternal life is the gift of God; he gives it as we believe and receive Christ as Saviour and Lord, committing ourselves to him, to follow and obey as our new friend and Master. 

If I asked you, “Have you believed in Jesus like that? Have you received him as your Lord and Saviour?” – how would you reply? It helps our faith when we tell someone else that we have decided to follow Jesus. This is sometimes called “confessing Christ” and it allows you to exteriorise before a friend the decision that you have taken in your heart.

If you’re not sure if you’ve actually taken that step, there’s no harm in turning in prayer, just by yourself, and saying, “Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into the world to seek and save the lost like me; I open the door of my heart and receive you as my Lord and Saviour. Help me from now on to grow in my faith and to live as a Christian. Amen”

Jesus will gladly welcome you as his follower. 

Clive Every-Clayton

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Am I a good person?

What is a good person? How to define what goodness is for a human being? In his ground-breaking, thoroughly reasoned, brilliantly insightful book “After Virtue”, Alasdair MacIntyre clarifies the question with luminous simplicity. Taking as examples how we would assess whether a watch is a good watch or a farmer is a good farmer, he says “we define both ‘watch’ and ‘farmer’ in terms of the purpose or function which a watch or a farmer are typically expected to serve.” A knife or a pen is similarly “good” if they fit the purpose for which they were conceived.

Reflecting on this, I realised that Jesus had taught this principle when he referred to salt. “Salt is good” is one of his words, (Luke 14.34). Its purpose is clearly to provide flavour to food. In the Sermon on the Mount, however, he adds, “but if salt has lost its taste… it is no longer good”; it can’t fulfil its purpose (Matthew 5.13).

Why is our generation so confused about goodness and morality? Why do ethical debates, instead of helpfully defining goodness, end rather in a good mess? Alasdair MacIntyre puts his finger on the deep reason: what’s missing is an understanding of man’s purpose (telos is the word he uses). If a thing is considered good because it fulfils its objective or purpose, the key question is what is the purpose of human beings? If there is no clear answer to that question, it is impossible to judge whether a person is good.

Now if everything in the universe, including our human species, resulted from a powerful explosion without any guiding intelligence and wisdom to provide the purpose of it all, there can be nothing but confusion both as to our meaning and purpose. And lacking understanding of our purpose, there is no means of assessing the goodness or badness of people.

So the secular West’s evacuating the Biblical wisdom of the divine Creator who had in mind a purpose for his creation, and specifically for human beings made “in his image”, is the real cause of our profound confusion. If we do not know what a person if “for”, we cannot say whether or not he is good in accomplishing that purpose. 

So both the meaning and purpose of our human existence, and the criteria of good and bad, depend on knowing why we exist – what is our telos. Back in the 17th century, some serious biblical scholars, reflecting on the essence of Christian truth, posed in the Westminster Shorter Catechism the question, “What is the chief end (telos) of man?” They furnished Christianity with the most brilliant summary answer, unsurpassed in four centuries: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever”. Vital wisdom in 14 words!

The same essential answer was expressed by Stephen Meyer, erudite scientist, biblical Christian, and author of “The Return of the God Hypothesis”. Interviewed by Piers Morgan and asked point blank: “What is the meaning of life?” he responded wonderfully: “To come into a relationship with the Creator”. If that is the purpose of our existence, and we are not in harmonious relationship with God, we are not truly “good”, for we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were made. Today the Creator calls us out of that problematic situation: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened”, says Jesus, “and I will give you rest… learn from me” (Matthew 11.28). We will find that rest, through Jesus, as we commit to fulfilling His purpose for our lives.

Clive Every-Clayton

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My spiritual birthday

This week I celebrate my spiritual birthday. “What,” you may ask, “is a ‘spiritual birthday’”? The idea comes from one of Jesus’ vital but rather obscure teachings. The Son of God declared categorically: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3.3).

One has to admit, it’s not obvious what Jesus was meaning, and his interlocutor responded with incredulity: “How can a man be born when he is old?” Jesus went on to explain he was speaking of a spiritual birth, the beginning of a new spiritual life in a person’s heart. Elsewhere in the Gospel it is called being “born of God” – born anew as God’s child when God grants new life to a human soul. 

In John’s Gospel (1.10-13) it says that when Jesus came into the world, there were many who did not recognise him nor welcome him; but “to all who did receive Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. That is an amazing blessing, but the passage adds that those who believe in Jesus and receive him by faith as their Lord and Saviour are “born of God”.
What does that mean? Let me back up a little first. When a baby is born, all the family rejoices: it receives a human life which will go on to develop as he or she grows. Yet when it matures, albeit marvellously endowed, it becomes evident that there is selfishness and unkindness when bad attitudes and actions become visible in its life. In biblical terms, it is born with a sinful disposition that produces behaviour that is sometimes aberrant.

Human experience testifies that however hard we try, we cannot efface this sinful tendency from within us. That’s why the Bible says we are all “sinners”: we all know what it is to have a guilty conscience; no-one is perfect.

What can change us? Well, Jesus proposes giving us a renewed Christian life by a new spiritual birth. He means that his own Holy Spirit will make us born again. As the text above states, this is for those who believe in Jesus and who receive him as Lord and Saviour. This new birth occurs as people turn away from sin, trust in Jesus, and commit to following and obey him.

The day I was born again, it was Easter Sunday; I had heard a preacher explain that when Jesus died on Good Friday, he took on himself, out of compassion for the likes of lost sinners like me, all my faults and all their punishment. He suffered in my place; he died the death that was the “wages of sin” for my disobedience. He did it because he loved me; and now, alive and risen from the dead, he called me to receive him as my personal Saviour, to forgive me, to change me, to come and give me new life, to come and live in me by his Holy Spirit. So I prayed and committed my life to Christ.

Thus was I “born again”: in the weeks that followed I developed a relationship with Jesus as my best and closest friend, my helper to enable me to overcome the temptations that were on my path, and to put away various sinful attitudes and habits.

I cannot more strongly encourage all my readers to do the same. Become a “born again Christian” – that’s the kind of Christian Jesus wants and he will give you that new life if you ask him.

Clive Every-Clayton

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The “endarkenment”

In the Middle Ages, proud intellectual philosophers dared to think that they could find the answers to questions about the meaning of life, the universe, and everything while rejecting the prevailing biblical consensus of the time. That period was called the “Enlightenment”.

After several centuries of intellectual effort the result is one of confusion, humiliation, and the recognition of failure. Having abandoned the wisdom of Jesus who declared that he was “the Light of the world”, philosophers who hoped for enlightenment by their own rational powers ended up plunging the world into hopeless darkness; I call this the “endarkenment”.

The truth is that only the Creator of the whole universe who placed on earth human beings made in his image – only he can enlighten our darkness. “God says: It is I who have made you and I alone can teach you what you are” (Pascal). 

The true enlightenment came when God sent into the world his Son, who proclaimed: “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life” (John 8.12). What a claim! The Gospels tell us that he was “the true light which enlightens everyone” (John 1.9). Jesus’ light “shines in the darkness” (John 1.5); but Jesus lamented that “people loved the darkness rather than the light”. Why? Jesus tells us: “because their deeds were evil; for everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed” (John 3.19-20). In other words, Jesus’ light includes moral absolutes; these condemn our sins, and we don’t like that, so we “switch off” the light. That’s why Jesus was rejected and crucified by evil men.

Today, Jesus’ light remains the only ultimate answer to our human predicament, and our refusal to listen to him damns us to remain in our existential darkness.

A powerful passage in the New Testament unveils the deep darkness of our human condition; sadly, we are too proud to envisage its truth. It speaks of all people as “walking in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Ephesians 4.17-19). It takes serious humility to accept such an accurate assessment of our human condition!

Another penetrating and devastating analysis of our human darkness is to be found in the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. It describes how people “became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools… They exchanged the truth about God for a lie… and… did not see fit to acknowledge God”. Such behaviour brings down God’s holy wrath against us sinners, and the passage shows that an element in that righteous judgment is that God abandons sinful people to their “dishonourable passions”; specifically “women exchanging natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise giving up natural relations with women and being consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (v26-27).

In other words, bad thinking leads to bad living. God’s light not only answers our existential questions: it provides moral truth we need, to deliver us from the hellish slippery path of relativistic moral thinking. 

Jesus, however, offers truth and the promise of eternal life.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Pride!

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, but there are two kinds of pride. There is justifiable pride in, say, the successes of a child in studies or sports, or a job well done. But there is the pride that considers oneself above others, that looks down with disdain on what are considered the weaknesses or faults of others, believing in one’s own superiority. That is not a good attitude.

As human beings seek answers to our profound questions, our pride can get in the way of finding the authentic answers we need. We so easily dismiss proposals that call in question our preferred ideas; why? Because we suffer from intellectual pride and we are unwilling to admit we may have got things wrong. 

Why does Jesus call us to be humble and to repent? Because he knows that human pride causes us our own worst problems: it cuts us off from the attitude we should have to enjoy the answers that will give us true fulfilment.

Let me share this gently with you: you will never find the authentic answers you seek unless you humble yourself like a little child and adopt an attitude of openness to receive truth from God himself, brought by Jesus. Otherwise, pride will go before a fall – and a terrible final fall it will be unless there is a change of mind!

Who could ever find a better story, a more desirable vision, a more appropriate worldview? There is nothing to compare with the profound simplicity of the Christian revelation. You will never find anything more life-affirming, love-inspiring, heart-uplifting, soul-stirring, and conscience-cleansing as the message of God’s grace, revealed in his Son, our saviour. We who know the story so well know that nothing can compare with God’s purpose for our lives when we are brought into harmonious relationship with him.

Who could invent anything approaching the sublime profundity and the enriching simplicity of the greatest love-story in the world – the love of Christ for us wayward men and women? The Lord of glory incarnate condescended to be treated on earth by wicked men as the most criminal blasphemer. Why? Because his judges were so blind and proud they couldn’t admit that their judgment on Jesus might be wrong! Jesus humbly came, he said, to serve mankind – and mankind did away with him. Knowing what was going to happen to him, he came “not to be served but to serve and to give his life” to pay the ransom to free us from evil and save us from an eternity in hell. By his horrendous suffering, freely endured on our behalf, he demonstrated unfathomable divine love and compassion for the wicked rebels we were, who deserved his just condemnation. He came to save us from the suffering we deserve, by taking that suffering on himself; only thus could a righteous and just God deliver us from the righteous condemnation that otherwise must fall on us, sinners that we are in his sight.

Where else do you find love like that? Love so amazing, so divine is absolutely unique – and it has been demonstrated once for all in the historic person of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. And his resurrection proves it must have been of God.

Did you ever realise you were loved like that? Certainly it humbles us to acknowledge our unworthiness and shame; we are so far from deserving love of that kind. Better to humble ourselves and enter into that glorious eternal love relationship that Jesus proposes than to remain proud, stiff-necked, and end up in eternal torment.

Clive Every-Clayton

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God can forgive your sin

The Bible is a very realistic book. It does not hesitate to recount the sexual failures of some of its main characters – to make us realise two essential truths. One, that in even the best of men there is sin (the sole exception is Jesus). And two, the worst sinners may be redeemed.

Take King David for an example. He was called “a man after God’s own heart”, he penned a number of Psalms that are in the Bible, many of which express his devotion to God and trust in the Lord. But when he was tempted, seeing Bathsheba bathing, he was overcome with lust and committed adultery with her. Then, in a vain effort to cover us his sin, he brought about the death of Bathsheba’s husband, and then married her.

When the Bible records such events, it never encourages such behaviour, of course. The reader is to learn from the bad examples in the Bible as well as from the good: to imitate the good, not the bad!

Indeed, the Bible recounts how a prophet came to rebuke David for his sin, and two of David’s psalms (numbers 51 and 32) give deep emotional expression to his most earnest contrition, his search for forgiveness, his prayer of repentance, and the ultimate joy of knowing God had forgiven him. 

The Bible constantly maintains that double message: first, we are all sinners in need of forgiveness, whether our sin is desperately wicked or relatively respectable; and second, our sin can be forgiven however awful it may be.

We need both those messages. To ignore how sinful we are leads us into pride and self-deception and we fail to realise our need of God’s forgiveness. To ignore the grace of God that saved even a wretch like the slave-trader John Newton (who wrote the hymn “Amazing grace”) is to cut yourself off from the hope of a conscience finally cleansed of all guilt and at peace with oneself and (more importantly) with God.

So the Bible abounds with God’s offer of forgiveness and salvation, and as we all fall short of the good life we should lead, we all need God’s forgiveness. Furthermore, no-one else can grant us that forgiveness; but God can and he wants to forgive you. In fact he wants so much to forgive you that he sent his Son to bear your sins and “pay” for them when he died on the cross, so that if you accept his offer of forgiveness you won’t have to pay for them in all eternity – yes, in hell. 

So listen to God’s words: “Seek the Lord while he may be found… Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55.6-7). What an invitation!

“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity? …He delights in showing mercy. He will have compassion on us… You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7.18-19).

“In Christ we have redemption through his blood (shed on the cross), that is, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1.7).

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1.18).

“Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3.19).

If you turn from sin in your life – whatever you may be conscious of, and call on the name of Jesus, he will forgive you.

Clive Every-Clayton

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